#newnewtwitter

Since this isn’t their first design shakeup, the hashtag for the latest Twitter version is #newnewtwitter. When Twitter came out with #newtwitter I got it almost before I heard about it. With #newnewtwitter, it has been a week, and I still don’t have it on the web. I’ve seen it flash on my account and disappear with a mouseclick.

How to Twitter and Why Everyone Should: 3 Great Reasons

I’ve been doing a lot of research about Twitter lately – Tweets, Tools, Tweeps, Twits – I’m not quite the ‘Social Media Scientist’ Dan Zarrella is, but I am researching methods for a Twitter book and am so pleased with my results, I didn’t want to save it all for the book. Beyond numbers of followers (we all want more) and writing gigs (I want more) there are the friendships that arise unexpectedly, seemingly from nowhere.

HoverMe

HoverMe is an add-on for Twitter developed by Ed Orcutt. If you hover over a twitter profile, HoverMe displays the other social networks the user belongs to. The other networks are clickable, and you’re able to investigate much deeper than the twitter profile offers, which is typically just a website.

1MM Twitter Applications

Twitter recently commented that they now have over 1,000,000 Twitter applications, and have put up a new Twitter Developer website to accommodate all those developers out there working feverishly to make new twitter applications.

I decided to investigate all of the twitter tools I could actually find, and that was 629. I didn’t do this research alone, I had to have help. And while 629 is a far cry from a million, it is a large number of tools to evaluate on your own to see if there are tools you could be using to grow your business.

Blackbird

Twitter released Blackbird, a tool to “quote” a Tweet by using the status identifier and some html (a lot of html actually) that you then place into a WordPress post or elsewhere. Before it was take a screenshot, edit the image, upload . . . time consuming.

To Use the Blackbird tool

(I don’t care for it; a 8 tedious steps) They are:

Copy the full URL of a tweet (http://twitter.com/TraciGregory/status/90949832008671230)

Go to http://media.twitter.com/blackbird-pie/

Click on the input text field

Paste the URL

Click on “Bake it”

Click on the text area where the HTML code is created

Select all text (press ctrl+a or cmd+a on a Mac)

Copy (ctrl+c or cmd+c on a Mac)

Then paste the code wherever you want the status. The only thing I can say is it is better than a screenshot that you have to edit

Better is the Publitweet Bookmarklet, which you can use from your bookmarks

Go to the URL of a tweet (http://twitter.com/#!/AlecBaldwin/status/91483756870909952)

Click on the bookmarklet (which you’ve installed from the link above)

Copy (press ctrl+c or cmd+c on a Mac)

Paste it where ever you want it

Here’s what it looks like (it will adapt to your css, it won’t throw off your template):

Best is the Blackbird Plugin IF it will work with your webhost.

After you install the plugin, you get the status ID from twitter and embed the blackbird id in your post. Quick, one line input. But there are some problems with Twitter (Can’t explain why . . . haven’t figured it out )

To get the status ID number, click on the TIME on any tweet; you’ll get a page with just that tweet. Pick up the URL, or ID Number, or use the Blackbird Bookmarklet on that page.

I like that the bookmarklet changes the “2 mins ago” to the actual date the tweet was done.

1,000,000 twitter applications and growing?

Twitter reported today, July 11, that they now have more than 1 million registered third-party Twitter applications. That is up from 150,000 registered applications one year ago. They say there are more than 750,000 developers world-wide in their developer community. I hope they aren’t counting people like me, who’ve added hovercards and a twitter box to my website as a ‘twitter developer.’

If they are counting people like us who’ve added tricks to our websites, these numbers are grossly overstated . . . but with quotes like this one, ya kinda have to consider my website may be one of the million+ applications.

from the official twitter blog

“A new app is registered every 1.5 seconds, fueling a spike in ecosystem growth in the areas of analytics, curation and publisher tools.”

In conjunction with the announcement, Twitter is also releasing a new Twitter Developer site.

I think I’ll release the “Definitive Guide to Twitter . . . How to Find Your Way around 1,000,000 Twitter applications, and which ones will really do something for you!”

It may or may not have occurred to you to add the @Anywhere application to your website or WordPress Blog.

At first blush, the idea of having your own tweet box from which people may ‘tweet’ doesn’t make sense. Only if you have some incredible content that they want to tweet immediately, would there be a reason for it, and then, lets be realistic, there are all those tweet-this applications that don’t take up nearly so much room in your real estate!

Twitter describes adding @Anywhere as adding “open, engaging interactions providing a new layer of value for visitors without sending them to Twitter.com.”

I don’t see going to Twitter.com as being that difficult, and as I said before there are “tweet this” tools all over the net the size of the little guy to your right. So, what else has it got apart from the tweet box?

There are a couple of linking tricks that come with @Anywhere, and my favorite is the hover box that you get with every twitter address you include in your text. Check them out (Mouse over them)

@tracigregory

Twitter’s full list of benefits is small

Embed a Tweet Box on your site and help your users share what matters to them. Push your content throughout Twitter–from Twitter.com to Google search; from SMS to the tens of thousands of apps.

Connect provides simple Sign In for tens of millions of engaged users. Access a network made of interests: not just friends, but news sources and businesses small and large.

So there you have it. The Twitter Connect is an obvious rival to Facebook Connect, and really, I don’t care how I log in to some things, if I just don’t have to create ANOTHER log-in to keep up with. Twitter, Facebook, really, one is as good as the other, as long as the place I’m signing in to doesn’t require access to either my Facebook or Twitter account. Then, more than likely, I’m going to just close that window and not explore their site.